My Pantry Remodel: AFTER!!

I am in love, people. If it is possible to be in love with a closet, then that is what I am! haha!!

So, my pantry will never be some massive walk-in thing that you drool over in home decor magazines. It's a closet. 33 inches wide and 24 inches deep. My two goals were to: 1) Make it more functional, and 2)Make it prettier. That was all I wanted. And I am pleased to say that I DID it!

Step one was to get everything out. That was fun. I found all sorts of things I didn't know I had! It was a voyage of discovery, ha! It was also a good chance to go through everything and toss the things that had expired and whatnot. Once the pantry was empty, I pulled out the shelves. They were just sheets of plywood screwed into wooden supports-- they came out really easily, and without damage! And then came the cool part: the shelves were perfectly sized for me to be able to reuse them! Money in my pocket, woohoo!! The original shelves were 16 inches deep. I had decided that I wanted my new shelves to be 10 inches deep (at the back) and 5 inches deep (on the sides). The math worked out perfectly. My husband helped me out with the table saw and made some quick cuts. I had purchased some cheap metal brackets to connect the shelves together underneath. So basically, the bottom of each "new" shelf looked like this:

That was the hardest part. The rest was pretty much just paint! I painted the walls the same gray color as the surrounding room, and the shelves the same white that I've been using on the trim around the house. All paint that I already had on hand, so I saved money there. Then I just screwed the shelves back into place. Voila!

Meanwhile, the floor of the pantry looked like this. Please note my furry helper.

GROSS, right??? So nasty! I knew it was nasty when we moved in, and had put a few lids from large storage bins down to cover it. I had forgotten how bad it was, though. And even after getting down on my hands and knees with floor cleaner and a stiff nylon scrub brush, it didn't look much better. It was beyond help. So I walked around the aisles of my favorite home improvement store and decided to spend $6 on a few self-adhesive vinyl tiles. Best $6 I could've spent! The floor went in quickly and looked AWESOME! Just like black granite. Fancy! hehe! They also cut easily with an Xacto knife or, for smaller cuts, scissors. They were really easy to work with, and were a good choice for such a small space that wouldn't really be getting any foot traffic.

I had also taken the door off the hinges to paint it. Dear homeowners of the world: If you are going to paint a door, TAKE IT DOWN FIRST! For one, your paint job will turn out better. But you will also prevent future generations of homeowners from being angry with you for being so lazy. I will talk about this in more depth when I post about restoring the old door hardware. But yeah... Don't be lazy! Please!!

I painted the door with that same white paint, and attached some wire baskets to the back. These were about $5 each on Amazon.

They screwed right into the door. Piece of cake.

And then it was just a matter of putting everything back together. My hubby helped me get the door back on, since that's much easier with two people. I moved all my food back in. And it is amazing, truly AMAZING how much more functional this space is. And pretty. LOOK!!

Love. Love, love, love! And what little shelf space I lost when I cut the shelves, I more than made up for with the wire baskets. It is so easy to find things in there now. I LOVE MY PANTRY!!!

To review:

And all for about $40. The cost of the baskets, the tiles, metal brackets, and shelf liner (optional). AWESOME!!

Remodeling the Pantry for Cheap: BEFORE

I am embarrassed that I am even going to show you these pictures, seriously. My pantry is a MESS. When we first moved into the house nearly two years ago, I just threw things in there with the intent to organize them later. Periodically, I'd pull some things out and organize it... sort of.

Mostly, I'd just tidy things in case someone looked inside. Really, it's bad. I can never find anything. I bought flour the other day, and realized I already have TWO unopened bags in there. Yeah. It's really not an effective use of space at all.

Without further ado... The Mess (AKA the "before" picture). Don't judge me! (hangs head in shame)

And a close-up of the inside, so you can see just how bad the paint is. This is one of the nicer spots, haha!

In addition to having these annoying deep shelves that make it so I can't see what's in there, the whole thing needs to be painted, DESPERATELY. And I also realized that the door latch is on backwards-- I never noticed that before! I hope I can fix that, but it will be my first attempt at removing/cleaning/replacing hardware from 1830. It could be interesting! There might be a reason that it's on there the way it is, but I need to look into it some more.

At any rate, I have my work cut out for me. But I have a plan! And the whole thing should cost me less than $40, since I plan to reuse the wood and already have some of the paint and supplies I need. Wish me luck! I see a beautiful, functional pantry in my future! :)